The article, "The Negro's Civil War in Tennessee, 1861-1865" by Bobby L. Lovett, was published in "The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 61, No. 1" (Jan. 1976). In the article, Lovett writes about the contributions of black Tennesseans during the Civil War in obtaining their freedom - under some of the worst racial conditions and violence one could imagine.
             The decision to draft black men for military service was made on June 28, 1861, by the Tennessee State General Assembly, and it was the first such act in the United States. There were three provisions to the act;
             - all free black males between the ages of fifteen and fifty were eligible for military labor units
             - each month, the men would receive eighteen dollars plus rations and clothing (no uniforms given)
             - those who refused military service would be arrested and charged with a punishable misdemeanor. The passing of this act meant that black men were going to war.
             One strength of Lovett's article is the emphasis on the shift in ideology among black people in that they no longer felt "too dumb to function" on their own. With the war still in its early stages, ex-slaves and other blacks wanted to get in on the action, hoping to fight those who had enslaved them and their families for generations. The men tried to enlist, but due to the color of their skin, they were rejected for service. White soldiers and officers believed that black men didn't dare to fight and resented the thought of their slaves standing in Union blue uniforms.
             The massacre at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on April 12, 1864, was one of the bloodiest battles fought by both white and black soldiers. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Tennessee Confederate Cavalry took Fort Pillow and slaughtered 238 of the 262 black soldiers, claiming that the black troops refused to surrender. This massacre didn't intimidate the black men. Instead, it galvanized their courage, intensified their anger, and reinforced their dete...